Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus.
Related Art
In electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines, and the like, there are two transfer methods: a direct transfer method in which a toner image on a latent image bearer is directly transferred onto a transfer medium such as a copy paper; and an intermediate transfer method (also referred to as an indirect transfer method), in which the toner image on the latent image bearer is transferred and superimposed onto an intermediate transfer member such as an intermediate transfer belt and then secondarily transferred onto the transfer medium. In each of these methods, a transferor applies a transfer voltage having the same or opposite polarity to a charging polarity of the toner image to a transfer electric field forming target to form a transfer electric field, thereby transferring the toner image onto the transfer medium or the intermediate transfer member by electrostatic attraction or electrostatic repulsion. The transferor is, for example, a primary transferor and a secondary transferor. The transfer electric field forming target is, for example, a conveyance belt in the direct transfer method, or the intermediate transfer belt in the intermediate transfer method, and the transfer medium.